Minnesota 35th "Shall Issue"

Minnesota 35th "Shall Issue" State

Flash - Senate File 842 - including the Minnesota Personal Protection Act - just passed the Minnesota Senate on a vote of 37-30.

When Governor Pawlenty signs the bill next week, we will be the 35th "Radical" state in the union to have adopted shall-issue concealed carry laws.

I sat at the capitol for seven hours today, listening to the bloviations of the radical left. I figured out a couple of things:

• Know how to tell when Wes Skoglund is lying about guns? His lips are moving.
• Ellen Anderson - the senator that "represents" me in my district (66, St. Paul) wasted 45 precious minutes of my life asking questions that had been answered. Over. And over. Again. If it had been a court of law, the judge would have called it badgering.
• Jane Ranum, DFL-Mpls, had obviously not read the bill when she started her list of questions of Gen Olson and Pat Pariseau.
• They tell me Dean Johnson is a lutheran parish minister. I guess it's a good thing he's in the Senate, rather than corrupting a perfectly good bunch of Wilmar lutherans.
• Sen. Berglin, from Minneapolis, began to cry when she related the story of the Minneapolis grade-schooler who was killed by a stray bullet last year. she failed to tell the crowd how shots fired by a bunch of worthless punk bangers had anything to do with concealed carry permit holders.

And at the end of the day - a long day - it doesn't matter. Game over. We won.

This moment would not be possible without eight years of relentless work from Concealed Carry Reform Now of Minnesota, which took this bill from the "You must be some kinda wierdos" era, to today - when the plucky band of amateur lobbyists stared down the DFL and won at long last.

My own part in this debate? Endless punditry, both on my blog and on the Minnesota E-Democracy Discussion List and, long before it was a serious issue in Minnesota, on my old KSTP talk show. I had the easy part. The guys 'n gals in CCRN burned through a herd's worth of shoe leather buttonholing Senate members, winning them over one by one by one over the past 3/4 of a decade.

I'll see you at the courthouse.

I Want To...Siiiiiing... - The only song that seems to fit right now is "Chimes of Freedom". Dylon wrote it, but Springsteen ('89) and U2 ('88) did the definitive covers.

I'll play guitar. You all sing along:

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Written by Bob Dylan

This is the end of seven years' work for a lot of people. Congratulations. And God Bless Minnesota.

Posted by Mitch at April 28, 2003 06:48 PM